1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a method of associating a communications device with a computer terminal.
2. Related Art
Methods are known for remotely registering the association of a communications device such as a telephone terminal with a computer terminal over a distributed computer system, such as a Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) environment, so that a remote host can associate a particular computer terminal with a telephone terminal. These methods are used, for example, to enable a user to register their operation of a particular computer terminal and telephone terminal so that a remote host can redirect incoming communications at a remote site to the user.
The present exemplary embodiment seeks to simplify the registration process and to enable the association to be implemented using more cost effective technology by eliminating the need for an interactive voice response (IVR) system to be provided to assist in the association process. A known use of an interactive voice response system provided in a distributed computer system is to enable a user to remotely register via a telephone system the association of a telephone terminal and a computer terminal being operated by the user within the computer system. The terms “distributed computer system” and “distributed computer environment” are used herein to denote a client/server type computer system, for example in which each client may comprise a computer terminal capable of being associated with at least one telephone terminal.
CTI is particularly useful in call centres, and International Application Number PCT/GB96/00727 (Publication Number WO 96/31044, now also issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,390) in the name of BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company (BT) discloses an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) suite in a call centre such as BT's national telephone account management operation, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. International Application Number PCT/GB96/00727 (Publication Number WO 96/31044) describes a known ACD suite in a call centre, which is now described only briefly in respect of its component parts, and relevant operational characteristics with reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
In FIG. 1, a known ACD suite comprises a PABX 10, constituting a switching system of the present invention. The PABX 10 is associated with an ACD system 12 and connected to an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) 14 by a primary rate ISDN link 16 having thirty 64 kbit/s channels.
Customers, represented by telephone terminal 18, can make calls to the call centre by dialling the published directory number (also referred to as a national number or a destination terminal number) of the call centre. These incoming calls are received at the PABX 10 and placed in a queue by the ACD system 12. The ACD system 12 in known manner allocates the call at the head of that queue to a selected one of a plurality of call centre agent positions 20 (also referred to as workstations), each comprising a telephone terminal 22 (also referred to as an ACD turret) and an associated computer terminal 24. The association of each agent's workstation to the agent's telephone terminal is indicated by the dashed boundary in FIG. 1.
The agent whose terminal 22 is selected to answer the call is normally the agent at the head of a queue of free agents. This queue contains the identities of the agents, but alternatively can contain the directory numbers associated with the agents. Similarly, tele-working agents, represented by remote workstation 21 comprising telephone terminal 36 and associated computer terminal 38, can make calls to the call centre by dialling a published directory number of the call centre over a telephone link 40. Telephone link 40 is capable of supporting voice and data communication over different channels, such as in an ISDN link. However, the publication of the number of the call centre means that it is possible to abuse the registration system which associates a particular agent with a computer terminal and telephone terminal.
Consider where each computer terminal 24 is constituted by a personal computer, commonly referred to as a PC, and is connected to a host computer 26 having an associated database 28 and connected to the PABX 10 via a CTI link 30. In the prior art, an interactive voice response system (IVR) 32 is connected to a port of the PABX 10 and to the host computer 26, and is arranged to obtain data from customers, and tele-working agents, and to pass this to the host computer 26 for processing as appropriate. In this way tele-working agents are able to be registered and customers are connected to agents in the call-centre or remote tele-working agents as appropriate.
In order to support tele-working, the ACD system 12 must still associate a tele-working agent's identity with the identity of what it deems to be an active terminal 22 in the call centre, and the manner in which this is achieved will now be described.
In a first situation, a tele-working agent will activate his or her computer terminal 38 which will autodial the directory number of the host computer 26. When a connection (using one of the B channels) has been established via the ISDN link 16, the tele-working agent will log on to the host computer 26 using an identification protocol including informing the host computer 26 of the directory number being currently used by the tele-working agent, and the host computer 26 will store the tele-working agent's directory number in association with the identity of tele-working agent. If the tele-working agent has a designated location or, for example, if the agent is not permitted to change location without prior consent of the company, the tele-working agent does not inform the host computer 26 of the identity of the remote terminal, and the host computer 26 will refer to its record and retrieve the appropriate data.
The host computer 26 will now select an available terminal 34 from its list of virtual turrets, associate the tele-working agent's identity with the identity of the selected terminal 34, and send them to the ACD system 12 via the CTI link 30. The host computer 26 now has a record associating the identity of the agent, the identity of the remote terminal 38, and the identity of the selected terminal 34 and can upon interrogation by the identity of a terminal 34 retrieve the identity of the corresponding remote terminal 38. The ACD system can then operate in a number of ways such as are described in more detail within International Application Number PCT/GB96/00727 (Publication Number WO 96/31044 and also now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,390).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,357 “Computer Telephone Integration”, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, describes another known method of associating a computer terminal with a telephone terminal which is shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, the PABX 10 has a further terminal 34′, identical with a terminal 34 but not forming part of the set of virtual terminals 34 used by the host computer 26 in association with the identities of tele-working agents, as described above.
The secure registration of telephone terminal/computer terminal according to the second example of the prior art is effected as follows. Consider first the situation of a local agent, i.e. one working at a workstation 20 whose telephone is directly connected to a port of the PABX 10. The host computer 26 is arranged to respond to initiation of a log on procedure by the agent via the keyboard of the computer terminal 24 at his workstation 20 to send to that computer terminal 24 data for a screen display containing a text message “Please dial extension XXXX. When the call is answered, please enter via your telephone keypad the codeword YYYY.”.
The agent now responds to the message by dialling on his telephone 22, referred to herein as making a registration call, the extension XXXX, which is the extension number corresponding to the virtual terminal 34′, and the PABX 10 responds in normal manner by connecting ringing current to the corresponding port. The host computer 26 knows, via the CTI link 30, that the virtual terminal 34′ is “ringing”, and instructs the PABX 10 to treat the call as answered by recording the corresponding line circuit as being in “off hook” condition, and to report any digits received at the PABX 10 for that call.
The PABX 10 is arranged, in a known manner, to collect digits dialled during the call. In a variant, the PABX 10 connects a digit collector, not shown, to the virtual terminal 34′. Upon receipt of a message from the PABX 10 containing the digits received from the agent, and the extension number of the telephone 22 from which they were sent, the host computer 26 compares these received digits with the code sent in the screen display information, and, if they match, stores the extension number in association with the identity of the computer terminal 24 and sends a further screen display to the computer terminal 24 containing the text message “Please hang up.”. The agent has now been registered at the host computer 26 in association with his telephone terminal 22 and his computer terminal 24.
Known CTI systems such as are described by International Application Number PCT/GB96/00727 (Publication Number WO 96/31044), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,357 have the limitation that the method used to associate a computer terminal with a voice terminal requires an interactive voice response system (IVR). The IVR is connected to a port of a PABX 10 linked by a computer telephone integration link to a host computer and is arranged to obtain data from customers, and tele-working agents, and to pass this to the host computer 26 for processing as appropriate.
However, providing an IVR unit is costly and expensive. Each PABX in systems such as are described by the above prior art requires an associated IVR. This means that distributed ACD suites having a plurality of PABXs require a IVR unit for each PABX, which increases the cost of implementing such systems.